In Samandira Tecnik Ve Endüstri Meslek Lisesi teachers were received by their Principal, Mr. Huseyn Gumus whom we have already known as part of the Turkish delegation that visited Spain last November. He welcomed us and explained us the programme of meetings and visits we were going to carry out along the week. IES Valle de Aller gave him the coat of arms from Aller , our city council, from the part of our Major, Mr. David Moreno, and some books about Asturias for Samandira Lisesi library.

He is our bus driver in most of out trips to school and arounds. Thank you very much because we really learnt it was a difficult task to drive in Istambul (We haven´t seen so many cars togeteher, I promise) So congratulations!!!!

On 18 th March our first mobility students from KPUP Comenius project moved to Istambul to take part in the visit that our partern school Samandira Tecnik School has organized according to our programme. Four students and three teachers from IES Valle de Aller took part in this fantastic adventure organized by our associated partners from Turkey, coordinated by Ismail Kirbas, Comenius coordinator in SAMANDIRA TEKNIK VE ENDÜSTRI MESLEK LISESI

Let me introduce you the group of Spanish students from IES Valle de Aller who will visit our partner country, Turkey next week, from 18Th to 24th March. They are all studying 4º ESO in our school and they are the ambasssadors to present the work developed in our school about “Knowing the past to understand the present” our Comenius project.

We are going to intoduce them one by one. First the girls:

I´m Covadonga Llamas

I´m Lucia Gutierrez

And the guys…

I´m Adrián Fernández

I´m Javier Rodríguez

And this is our programme for next week. We promise to give you a complete report of the visit and the things we learn about Turkish History

The history of Turkey begins with the migration of Oghuz Turks into Anatolia in the context of the larger Turkic expansion, forming the Seljuq Empire in the 11th century AD. After the Seljuq victory over forces of the Byzantine Empire in 1071 at the Battle of Manzikert, the process was accelerated and the country was referred to as ‘Turchia’ in Europe as early as the 12th century. The Seljuq dynasty controlled Turkey until the country was invaded by the Mongols following the Battle of Kosedag.

During the years when the country was under Mongol rule, some small Turkish states were born. One of these states was the Ottoman beylik which quickly controlled Western Anatolia and conquered much of Rumelia. After finally conquering Istanbul, the Ottoman state would become a large empire, called the Turkish Empire in Europe.

Next, the Empire expanded to Eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Central Europe and North Africa. Although the Ottoman Empire’s power and prestige peaked in the 16th century; it did not fully reach the technological advance in military capabilities of the Western powers in the 19th century.

Nevertheless, Turkey managed to maintain independence though some of its territories were ceded to its neighbours and some small countries gained independence from it. Following World War I in which Turkey was defeated, most of Anatolia and Eastern Thrace was occupied by the Allied powers including the capital city Istanbul.

In order to resist the occupation, a cadre of young military officers formed a government in Ankara. The elected leader of the Ankara Government, Mustafa Kemal organized a successful war of independence against the Allied powers.

After the liberation of Anatolia and Eastern Thrace, the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923 with its capital at Ankara.